Thumbelina

A woman wanted a child very much. She went to a witch, and the witch gave her a grain of barley. "Plant it in a flowerpot," she said. The woman planted it, and at once a tulip bloomed. When she kissed the petals the flower opened, and inside sat a tiny girl no bigger than a thumb. They named her Thumbelina. Her cradle was a walnut shell, her bed a violet petal, her blanket a rose petal. By day she went boating on a tulip leaf in a dish of water on the table, and sang.

One night an ugly, wet toad hopped in through the window. "What a fine bride for my son!" she said, and carried the walnut shell off to the marsh. She put Thumbelina on a water lily leaf. The girl cried; the fish felt sorry for her and gnawed through the stem of the leaf. The leaf floated away with the current, and a butterfly took hold of its thread and pulled. The girl escaped from the toads.

But then a cockchafer snatched her up into a tree. When the other beetles said, "She has only two legs and no feelers, how ugly!" the beetle let her go. Thumbelina lived alone in the forest all summer; she ate flower nectar and drank dew from the leaves. Autumn came, then winter. The snowflakes struck her like giant shovels. She was about to freeze when she found the door of a field mouse.

The field mouse was kind. "Stay with me, clean the house and tell me stories," she said. Her neighbor was a rich but gloomy mole. The mole wanted to marry Thumbelina; then she would never see the sun again. The girl was very sad.

In the mole's tunnel lay a swallow, as if lifeless. Thumbelina pitied it, covered it with dry grass, and noticed that its heart was still beating. All winter she secretly fed it. When spring came the swallow was well: "Come with me, I'll take you to warm lands." But the girl did not want to upset the mouse, so she stayed.

The wedding day came. As Thumbelina went out to say goodbye to the sun one last time, she heard a familiar voice from the sky: the swallow! "I'm coming now!" said the girl, and jumped onto its back. They crossed mountains and seas. In a sunny land they landed on one of the flowers among white marble columns. Inside the flower sat a winged prince as small as Thumbelina. He was the king of the flowers. He gave her wings and a new name: Maia.

From that day on Maia flew from flower to flower. And the swallow returned north every year and told this story at a windowsill. Perhaps one morning it will sing at your window too.